Advances in Scanning Thermal Microscopy Measurements for Thin Films

AbstractOne of the main challenges nowadays concerning nanostructured materials is the understandingof the heat transfer mechanisms, which are of the utmost relevance for manyspecific applications. There are different methods to characterize thermal conductivity atthe nanoscale and in films, but in most cases, metrology, good resolution, fast timeacquisition, and sample preparation are the issues. In this chapter, we will discuss one ofthe most fascinating techniques used for thermal characterization, the scanning thermalmicroscopy (SThM), which can provide simultaneously topographic and thermal informationof the samples under study with nanometer resolution and with virtually nosample preparation needed. This method is based on using a nanothermometer, whichcan also be used as heater element, integrated into an atomic force microscope (AFM)cantilever. The chapter will start with a historical introduction of the technique, followedby the different kinds of probes and operation modes that can be used. Then, some of theequations and heating models used to extract the thermal conductivity from these measurementswill be briefly discussed. Finally, different examples of actual measurementsperformed on films will be shown. Most of these results deal with thermoelectric thinfilms, where the thermal conductivity characterization is one of the most importantparameters to optimize their performance for real applications.Keywords: scanning thermal microscopy, thermal probes, thermoelectric thin films,thermal conductivity, local temperature measurements

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